DIRTY OLD MAN TELLS Dirty JOKE

John McCain told this joke to a crowd of Republicans:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

Although this incident was reported by the Associated Press , many papers refused to print it.

See Salon.com for more.

Why do you think a newspaper would fail to print something like this? Out of good taste? To protect Chelsea? To protect Hillary? To protect Janet Reno? Or to protect John McCain?

DUH-UH!

How could anyone not spot the link?

In all of American history, the only president touting torture is also the one giggliest about a god who, at death, sends his children off into a vast underground torture chamber to be boiled in oil -- for forever.
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thnx to canbalci for the foto; go HERE to see more.

PRAYER TO THE Great MOTHER

Dear Great Goddess,

Please help the world wake up and see something it seems totally blind to: That the earth and everything on it is being scorched by a mindset that has spread like cancer across the planet.

This mindset is "... so ready to denigrate life on earth as to risk its destruction, whether quickly through war or slowly through pollution."

Since the central theme of this mindset IS war, destruction, pain and devastation, people who hold it actually attract war, destruction, pain and devastation -- just as magnets attract metal.

George W. Bush holds this mindset -- the very same held by Osama bin Laden. Bush and bin Laden worship the same deity: the god of Abraham, YahwehAllahJehovah.

For millennia this god has told his followers to kill all who fail to fall on their knees in front of him. The result? 53% of the world now worships him.*

And now, as I see it, this god has gone schizophrenic. After splitting himself in two, he's ordered his two halves to pulverize one another.

And this is exactly what Bush and bin Laden have been working feverishly on: the annihilation of each other (and along with them, of course, the rest of us).

Three days after 9-11, "Bush, standing in the soaring space of the National Cathedral and invoking God, declared his purpose: 'to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.'"

The god of Bush and bin Laden's says the world is coming to an end. This is why Bush is totally unconcerned about global warming and always has been. It's not man-made -- it's god-made. Nothing we can do about it.

It explains why he's cool as a cuke as the world economy crumbles in his face. God's will. Nothing I can do about it. Ho-hum.

It explains why he did next to nothing about Katrina. God's will -- who am I to stand in the way of what God wants?

Pull out of Iraq? Why? That's where the apocalypse will happen! We can't pull out. On the contrary -- we need to spread ourselves thicker over there. Into Iran, Syria, Israel.

I was holding my breath, dear Mother, until November, when we would sweep this sickness at least out of the White House. Now, in Sarah Palin, Queen of "Spiritual Warfare," I'm seeing the same sickness staring me in the face once again.**

Great Goddess, what do you have in mind for us? Will the world, like New York's Twin Towers, fall in on itself before people finally wake up and see their real problem is the sickness that is YahwehAllahJehovah?

Is that what it's going to take to make people wake up and shake off the sickness? To replace it (if they want religion at all) with the healthy, healing, non-violent, non-hierarchical religions of the Neolithic and early Bronze Age -- religions that centered around you, a Mother Goddess who, like all mothers, wants nothing except for her children be kind to one another?

Great Mother, please at least let the seeds of knowledge about you be sewn before the implosion (if that's what you have in mind). Then when the world picks up the pieces again, it will at least understand Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zeusism and all the rest as the incendiary sicknesses they are, and will shun them like a plague of cancers.

Love, hugs and kisses,
Your Athana
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*World Almanac & Book of Facts, 2004
** See yesterday's post, "Sarah, Mary and Diana Queen of Heaven."

SARAH, MARY & Diana QUEEN OF HEAVEN

As punched full of donut holes as Sarah Palin and her church are, it might be the best thing that's happened to America in a coon's age.

Finally, Americans might wake up and smell the YAJ-filth rotting in their own backyards. Could be that Americans might even become as terrified of YAJ* as they should be.

Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement ... declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949.... The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world.

The Third Wave ... is based on the idea that in the end times ... a group of Christians ... will take ... over the existing church and the world....

SNIP

Sarah Palin's ... association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate.

SNIP

Worship includes excessive charismatic manifestations such as hundreds of people falling, 'slain in the spirit,' and congregations laughing, jerking, and shrieking uncontrollably.

SNIP

Worldwide mission efforts of the movement are built around the idea of combating witches, warlocks, and generational curses....

The Third Wave ... is a network of Apostles, many of them grouped around ... the World Prayer Center. This center ... was featured in an article by Jeff Sharlet in Harpers, May 2005, "Soldiers of Christ." [COVERED ON THIS BLOG].

Sharlet was one of the first to write in the secular press about ... the Third Wave as the 'Pentagon for Spiritual Warfare.'

It features computer systems that store the data of communities around the world, mapping out unsaved peoples' groups and spiritual mapping information for spiritual warfare.

SNIP

[At the] 'Operation Ice Castle' in the Himalayas in 1997[, s]everal of their top prophets ... spent weeks in intensive prayer to "confront the Queen of Heaven." This queen is considered by them to be one of the most powerful demons over the earth and is the Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon in Revelation....

Wagner and his group also claim that the Queen of Heaven is Diana, the pagan god of the biblical book Ephesians and the god of Mary veneration in the Roman Catholic Church....

From today's HuffingtonPost.com. Go HERE for more.

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*YAJ is the god YahwehAllahJehovah, really just one god. This god thinks people in all religions but his will go to Hell.
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thnx to horsey gormenghast for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Curled MY HAIR

This video curled my hair, and then twisted my stomach into knots. It shows the war-god YAJ in action.

The Goddess Asherah is mentioned as someone that needs taken down:


Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

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thnx to Karen Tate for the link to this.

ATHANA'S Recipe FOR First-Time VOTERS

Are you a first-time voter in this presidential election? Confused about who to vote for? Actually, it's really quite simple.

First, pick a party.

In America only two parties stand a snowball's chance of winning the Presidency: the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Any Democratic candidate is mostly going to do what past Democratic presidents have done. Likewise, any Republican candidate is going to do what past Republican presidents did.

So figure out which party makes the most sense to you. And then vote for that party's presidential pick.

Here's how the two parties stack up against each other:

1. HOW THEY SEE THE LESS FORTUNATE:

Democratic Presidents: WE SHOULD HELP THEM.
Republican Presidents: THEY'RE LAZY BUMS.

The only presidents who really fought to help black Americans were two Democrats: John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Franklin Roosevelt -- a Democrat -- also fought for the less fortunate.

When Democrats want to help people, Republicans -- for example Ronald Reagan -- call them names like "Tax and Spend Liberals" -- in order to smear and smash them.


2. HOW THEY SEE PEOPLE WHO DON'T OWN THEIR OWN BUSINESSES ("Workers"):

Democratic Presidents: AS IMPORTANT AS "OWNERS."
Republican Presidents: AS WORTHLESS, GREEDY BUMS.

Democratic presidents work to help Workers. They try to help Workers get together and stand up for themselves when Owners try to hurt them (i.e., the Workers).

Republican presidents usually help Owners screw Workers. They try to help Owners smack down Workers whenever Workers get together to stand up for themselves. This goes for all Workers, whether auto workers, secretaries, lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc.


3. ABOUT GUNS:

Democratic presidents: WANT LAWS ABOUT WHO CAN OWN WHAT KIND.
Republican presidents: GENERALLY DON'T WANT GUN LAWS.


4. ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT

Democratic presidents: WANT TO PROTECT IT.
Republican presidents: WANT TO DESTROY IT.

Democratic presidents think we humans are causing global warming. They want us to stop.

Republican presidents think destroying the environment means more oil, profit, money and riches for them and other Republicans.

At the Republican convention a few weeks ago, the whole crowd chanted "Drill, baby, drill!" They meant drill for oil in places that would destroy the environment forever, and cause the extinction of animal species -- forever.

Sarah Palin thinks that the kazillions of humans burning kazillions of tons of oil, coal and gasoline for decades, has nothing to do with global warming.


5. WHAT'S THE RIGHT WAY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS?

Democratic Presidents: TALK THEM OUT, "DIPLOMACY" FIRST.
Republican Presidents: YOU BOMB PEOPLE.

I give you George W. Bush, who bombed first and then ... well, actually, Dubya never did do any talking, before or after bombing Iraq.

I give you John McCain, who thinks war is a cute joke. In front of TV cameras he sang "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran," to the tune of the fifties love song "Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Barbara Ann..."


6. THE ELECTION CAMPAIGNS ...

... Of Democratic Presidents: ... TEND TO BE HONEST.
... Of Republican Presidents: ... CHOCK FULL OF LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING

I know of no dishonesty -- let alone major scandals -- perped by any Democratic presidential candidate on his opponent.

On the other hand, for the past 20 years, every presidential election has had major Republican scams targeting Democratic opponents. On a regular basis Republicans use lying, cheating, and stealing just to smear -- and thereby defeat -- Democrats. These scams are so big and well known that they even have names that everyone remembers to this day: "The Swift Boat ads," "Willy Horton," and "October Surprise."

Go on, Google these phrases. You'll choke under the load of garbage that comes up.


7. ABOUT FEAR:

Democratic presidents AREN'T JAMMED FULL OF FEAR.
Republican presidents ARE JAMMED FULL OF FEAR.

Democrats realize the world is a dangerous place, but they don't let fear cloud their judgment about it. You can see this lack of fear in their bodies; Democratic presidents look loose, calm and fluid: think Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy or Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Republican presidents ARE JAMMED FULL OF FEAR.

You can see this in the stiffness of their bodies. Republican presidents try to get all of us afraid. That way they can bend us to their will.

The bodies of Republican presidents look stiff, unbending, and like they're going to crack. Look at John McCain, Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan. They all look like boards stood upright in a corner.

So, all you first-time voters out there: what kind of person are you?

Are you the kind who thinks everyone less fortunate than you is faking it? If so, you probably belong in the Republican Party.

If not, vote for Obama.

Do you think Owners are royalty and Workers are less imporant people? If so, you belong in the Republican Party. Vote for McCain.

If not, vote for Obama.

Do you think anyone anywhere of any age should be able to walk in anywhere and buy a submachine gun? If so, you belong in the Republican Party. Or should we have laws requiring people to have background checks before they buy a gun? If so, you belong in the Democratic Party.

Vote for Obama.

Do you think there's nothing we can do about global warming and that trashing the environment is no biggie -- who needs all those species, anyway? Who needs the rainforest and the oxygen it provides for we kazillion humans? If this is how you feel, you belong in the Republican Party.

If not, vote for Obama.

Do you think "real men" are John Wayne types who shoot first and talk later? If so, vote for McCain. Or is trying to talk it out first, better? If so, you're a Democrat -- vote for Obama.

Do you think honest people are wimps? Vote for McCain. Would we all live in a better world if all of us were honest? Vote for Obama.

And finally, would someone riddled with fear be best to lead the free world? Then your party is Republican.

Otherwise, vote for Barack Obama.
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thnx to corkaborka77 for the fine foto; go HERE to see more.

FOR THE Love OF COW!

"... When there was a vacancy at the top of the [Alaska] Division of Agriculture, [Sarah Palin] appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship.

"A former real estate agent, Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency...."

For more, go to today's Boston Globe.
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Thnx to Humedo for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Bringing Back THE GODDESS

Check out this hot, new Goddess book: Walking an Ancient Path: Rebirthing Goddess on Planet Earth.

Walking was written by my friend the Reverend Karen Tate, ordained priestess of the Goddess, California Goddess author, California Goddess radio-show hostess, Goddess sacred-tour leader, and Goddess filmmaker.

One of the things I love about Karen? She focuses on the big picture. Not just "How can I, a Goddess lover, chug by from day to day?" but also "How can the world get back the Goddess it so badly needs?"

So not surprisingly, one metacool thing about Walking an Ancient Path is it tackles the larger picture -- along with the personal stuff.

Here's a taste of my Amazon.com review of the book:

"Tate reminds us that we in the Goddess community have important work to do, and that sometimes looking at the big picture -- for example our aims for changing the world -- can help us move beyond our sometimes-not-so-important personal frustrations.

SNIP

"If I were asked to choose the most powerful aspect of this book I would have to pinpoint the complete openness and emotional honesty Tate offers the reader throughout the text. She relates not only the good times but the bad, the times when she felt like quitting, when she felt alone, lost and abandoned: "While I dreamed of a supportive community valuing sisterhood and brotherhood, all embracing ideals of Goddess Spirituality, in reality I have at times felt lost like Dorothy and her cohorts from the film The Wizard of Oz, maneuvering through that forest of ghoulish trees and flying monkeys...." (p. 246).

"But Tate doesn't leave the reader dangling in the darkness. For every negative experience she also describes her journey up to level ground again. She offers us a wealth of positive responses to all the hurt, anger, frustration and trials she's experienced. Her book is limitlessly and refreshingly positive, uplifting, honest, and straightforward from start to finish....

MORE>>>>

HATFIELDS & McCains -- er, McCOYS

Sarah Palin: "U tetch ma sistr'n ahm gon' smash yo head in wi' mah shotgun, Trooper Hatfield!"

Remember Sarah Palin? The woman who'd put your 11-year-old daughter in jail if she (your daughter) got an abortion after her father/uncle/brother raped her? Frankly, folks, S. Palin is shot full of YAJ-disease.*

Who'd vote for her (or the dude who put her half a heart-beat away from the Presidency) except a no-nothing ninnie?

Do you want this person a heartbeat away from the Presidency?

No? THEN GET OUT THERE AND DO Something TO ELECT BARACK OBAMA!!! (Blogging doesn't count.)
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YAJ is Yahweh/Allah/Jehovah, who many think are three different gods. Actually, he's one god -- the primitive desert god of Abraham. YAJ-disease is a venomous ailment striking over 50% of our planet -- people who've somehow fallen prey to this deadly "I'm right, you're wrong," so-called religion.
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thnx to djmase for the foto; go HERE to see more.

SAY Nuh-uh TO SARAH

I know I'm obsessing about this Palin thing, but Palin is so skanky I'm giving myself permission to obsess.

Duncan has been given strict orders not to give me grief about it.

At any rate, if you feel like I do, here's one small thing you can do: Send your screaming outrage to the email address below, (sent to me by my friend Jan; the letter is addressed to women, but I'm sure they'll take screaming-meemies mail from men, too):

Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed
mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against:

o sex education,
o birth control,
o the pro-choice platform,
o environmental protection,
o alternative energy development,
o freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her),
o gun control,
o the separation of church and state, and
o polar bears.

To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation.

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called "Women Against Sarah Palin," which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please send us your reply at your earliest conveniencethe greater the volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.

VIVA!

Sincerely,

Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
New York, NY
womensaynopalin@gmail.com

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! If you send this to 20 women in the next hour, you could be blessed with a country that takes your concerns seriously. Stranger things have happened.

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thnx to Duncan for posing for the foto right before my camera batteries gave out, and before the sun disappeared over the horizon.

Give US OUR ENEMIES, PLEASE

NOTEWORTHY: The Religious Freedom Activist Network lists web addresses for hundreds of religious organizations of every stripe, including a couple dozen each for Pagans and Wiccans.

Also listed under each religion: the web addresses of its critics (this part of the site needs work; Pagans for example get only one critic -- Mr. J. Falwell. And we all know there's a whole termitehill-full more where he came from).

The site also offers a cool fifty or more websites devoted to "Government Religion Liberation," ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to Women Against Fundamentalisms and for Equality.

Nice to know we here at RGT aren't the only ones shaking our fists in the face of "religion" trying to swamp out government.

And it's a snappy title, don't you think? "Government Religion Liberation." Kinda reminds me of sixties' marching, demonstrations, and Che Guevara posters hanging everywhere.
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thnx to Guigia1 Luca Guigiani for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Drill, BABY, Drill

Although Sarah Palin is a YAJ-Mama*, that might not be the end of her list of sins. According to Mike Papantonio of GoLeft TV and Air America's Ring of Fire, "... the Republicans' new slogan - 'Drill Baby, Drill' - is music to Exxon's ears, because they've found a new Dick Cheney in Sarah Palin":



____________
*YAJ is YahwehAllahJehovah, thought by many to be three different gods but actually just one big, fat, feckless war god bent on destroying the earth the way he destroyed almost every other city in the ancient Near East in his holy guide-book to behavior, the BibleKoranTalmud.

Bush Critics GOING TO HELL

The pastor of Republican Vice-Presidential pick Sarah Palin "...preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell...." HuffingtonPost.com

Sign me up, St. Pete. Wherever they go -- that's where I wanna be.

SARAH Courts THE WAR GODS

The war god* Jehovah has thoroughly infected Mrs. Sarah Palin, from her tippy toes right up to her eye balls. Yep, you could say she's got him "under her skin":


Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- AP -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will." MORE>>>>>

Palin: Is She Subject to Her Husband?

WASHINGTON POST -- "Wives be subject to your husbands, as unto the Lord." So says the Christian scriptures in Ephesians, 5:22. What I would like to know, first of all, is who is going to have the final authority as Vice-President if Sarah Palin is elected, Palin or her husband? MORE>>>>>


Pentecostalism obscured in Palin biography

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- AP -- ...The Rev. Ed Kalnins, senior pastor at Wasilla Assembly of God [the church Palin grew up in] since 1999, once questioned in a sermon whether people who voted for Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election would get into heaven. MORE>>>>>
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*The words "war" or "warrior" appear over 300 times in the Christian Bible. Why would this be the case in a guide-to-right-behavior book? Unless, of course, the idea is to teach that war is "right behavior"?

ST. PAUL IN Chaos

Morgaine at The_Goddess has the dirt on the violence exploding at the Republican National Convention -- complete with sources for ongoing video footage.

ANCIENT PRIESTESSES MORE Powerful THAN SUPPOSED

Whenever scholars talk about the low status of ancient Greek women, I always squirm in my seat. Somehow this low-status "fact" has never satisfied me.

I haven't studied Greek history formally, but a lot of what I do know comes from the art, especially the vase painting. (As an undergrad I churned out a 40-page paper on ancient Greek vase painting, which ended in the prof inviting me to join his excavation in Turkey that summer -- an invitation I declined--can't for the life of me remember, now, why I was so foolish).

At any rate, ancient Greek vase painting has its fair share of mighty looking Greek women, and maybe that's the source of my dis-ease. Now today I stumbled across a book by an archaeologist claiming that, contrary to current accepted belief, the status of ancient Greek women was not all that low.

PORTRAIT OF A PRIESTESS: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, by Joan Breton Connelly, Princeton University Press, 2007, is about

"...a formidable class of women scattered over the Greek world and across a thousand years of history, down to the day in A.D. 393 when the Christian emperor Theodosius banned the polytheistic cults. It is remarkable, in this age of gender studies, that this is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject, especially since, as Connelly persuasively argues, religious office was, exceptionally, an “arena in which Greek women assumed roles equal ... to those of men.” Roman society could make no such boast, nor can ours.

SNIP

"With separation of church and state an inconceivable notion in the world’s first democracy, all priesthoods, including those held by women, were essentially political offices, Connelly maintains.

SNIP

"These aspects of Connelly’s well-documented, meticulously assembled [book] ... contradict what has long been the most broadly accepted vision of the women of ancient Greece, particularly Athens, as dependent, cloistered, invisible and mute, relegated almost exclusively to housekeeping and child rearing ....

"Connelly traces the tenacity of this idea to several sources, including the paradoxically convergent ideologies of Victorian gentlemen scholars and 20th-century feminists and a modern tendency to discount the real-world force of religion....

SNIP

"Connelly can cite more than 150 historical Greek priestesses by name. .... striking images of spirited women, at altars or leading men in procession, many marked as priestesses by the great metal temple key they carry....

SNIP

"In turn, women habituated to religious privilege and influence in the pre-Christian era eagerly lent their expertise and energy to the early church. But with one male god in sole reign in heaven, women’s direct connection with deity became suspect, and they were methodically edged out of formal religious power.

“There may be no finer tribute to the potency of the Greek priestess than the discomfort that her position caused the church fathers,” Connelly writes .... Her priestesses may be ancient history, but the consequences of the discomfort they caused endure to this day.

For the complete review, go to the New York Times Book Review.
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thnx to Theoi.com for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Warrior GODDESSES, CONTINUED

Just found this great post on Warrior Goddesses by Medusa over at Medusa Coils: Medusa Coils: Warrior Goddesses?

Looney-TUNE TIMES

The poor Republican party has finally snapped its kadoodle, scuddled its ducks, and checked into the looney bin.

It's nominated a man with one foot in the grave, poor dude, and totally addled in the attic -- a man who thinks the president of Russia is the president of Germany and who doesn't know what the major religion of Iran is. About economics -- the ability to keep money flowing into the national house so's we can all get the things we need -- he admits he knows nothing.

Oh, and let's not forget that temper -- you know -- the one he's shown repeatedly he can't control? Don't we all need a man like this with his finger on The Button?

And then, to show that he's completely dropped his socks in the basement, this darling tapped the sterling person who'll fill his shoes if and when he should die in office -- which isn't unlikely: no one as old as he has ever won a White House first term, and he's a cancer victim -- who knows if and when that'll come barging back?

Anyway, his choice has left conservatives with fear in their eyes, and muttering under their breath things like "bizarre," "totally nuts," and "he's parked its car up the wrong alley." The person he tapped is a former beauty queen almost half his age, who, five days before the November election, will be tried in court on ethics charges.

This poor person, who's been sucked under by YAJ* The Great, seems wound up tighter than a cuckoo clock. You can see it in her face and body and hear it in her tight, mechanical-toned laugh.

This woman has been so brutalized by YAJ that if her own daughter were raped, this woman says she would make her give birth -- even if the birth killed the daughter.1

This poor monstrosity sued George Bush for putting the polar bear on the endangered species list -- said it would prevent her state of Alaska from drilling more oil.2

This pitiful shell has been so damaged by YAJ that she insists American kids must -- by law -- be taught in public schools that it was YahwehAllahJehovah who gave birth to the universe.3

She thinks humans are not the cause of climate change.4 (Any fool knows all weather nasties are spinoffs of the wrath of YAJ.)

This woman needs to be pitied deeply. But a vote for her or the man who selected her might as well be a vote for Mickey, Minnie, Donald or Daffy.

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1. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-3540289-TP8Cs1x&t=1
2. "Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-3540289-TP8Cs1x&t=7
3. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-3540289-TP8Cs1x&t=3
4. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-3540289-TP8Cs1x&t=4
____________________
*YAJ is YahwehAllahJehovah, the god of Abraham. Although many think YAJ is three separate gods, nothing could be further from the truth.
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thnx to #....-Noe-....# for the foto, "Daffy Duck and Me."
Go HERE to see more.

Dancing WITH OM SHANTI (INDIA, HINDUS, KALI AND DURGA)

In this post, I rock and roll for a while with Om Shanti, who says the violence of the goddesses Durga and Kali "should *never* be taken at face value...."*

Om: Whatever you think Durga and Kali's actions might *mean," the fact is, they *are* violent. Although anyone can say their violence does not mean violence, the fact is, on a constant basis, Durga and Kali throw examples of violent behavior on the big silver screen of the Hindu mind.

For every new generation of Hindus, they hustle out their Technicolor lessons in how to do violence.

Do all religions crackle and pop with violent deities? No. In fact, it's my understanding that few do.** So why Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity? What's up with them?

To say as you do that deity violence symbolizes the "destruction of ignorance," begs the question. If I gave any dude off the street a ten-dollar bill to come up with ten *non-violent* ways to symbolize the stamping out of ignorance, he'd tick them off in no time. First on his list would be teachers, reading and schools.

Om, read up on ancient Indian history.*** In my humble opinion the ancient Indus Civilization was one of the most radically awesome in all of human history: not only peaceful and non-violent, but also technologically sophisticated and economically egalitarian (everyone shared the same high quality of life).

But I know of no evidence that this awesome civilization danced with violent goddesses. The Indus Civilization existed before the Indo-Europeans hit India sometime during the second millennium BC, and shoved their patriarchal warrior religion and social hierarchy down the throats of the Indian people.

According to Heather Elgood of the British Museum, the entire Rg Veda holds not one major goddess in it. One of the most visible, however, was Usas, Goddess of the Dawn -- notable mostly because she was raped by her father, the god Dieus.

Om, India and the glorious Indus Civilization figure prominently in my new book, on sale beginning in November or before, Switching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future. Be sure to read it and let me know what you think. If you want, you can even pre-order a copy now, by going HERE. Or ask your local librarian to spring for a copy.
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*For the rest of Om's comment, see August 19 post, "Fooey on Fighting."
**I welcome info from anyone who can prove me wrong on this.
*** Jane McIntosh's A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization is an excellent source.
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thnx to Rajamanohar for the foto of the reconstruction of the Indus Valley Civilization city of Mohenjodaro; go HERE to see more.

God-less TEMPLES: FOR SHAME

In a world stuffed with millions of Goddess-less churches, Geraldine Charles finds it odd that the world's five or six Goddess temples are chided for being god-less. A few snippets from her delicious article:

...the Magdalene figure is still being offered to us as a role model, although in the new, improved version we are now told that as modern Magdalenes we can “marry” the god and bear his child. I’ll pass, thanks....

SNIP

"...Of course, we haven’t even considered reclassifying male deities as demons (see any Old Testament for evidence of this done unto goddess)!

"It should hardly need to be pointed out that a Goddess Temple exists for a reason – in part to redress, in a very small way, thousands of years of complete imbalance, by providing a place where our love of goddess can freely be expressed and celebrated. Why have a token male deity in such a place? Surely that would simply be an afterthought, even an insult...."

For more, go HERE, to Geraldine's provocative online-zine, The Goddess Pages.
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thnx to Moo. Just Moo. for the foto. Go HERE to see more.